Water in Circular Economy

Marzena Smol is Head of the Division of Biogenic Raw Materials and Professor at the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences (IGSMiE PAN). She specializes in Environmental Protection and Engineeringas well as International Project Management. Expert in the field of biogenic raw materials management in the context of sustainable development (SD), circular economy (CE) and Green Deal Strategies. She participated in the development of the Roadmap 'Transformation towards circular economy in Poland'. Expert in projects dedicated to raw materials recovery (phopshorus), waste-based fertilizers, policy recommendations, water recovery, wastewater treatment, environmental education for CE. Holder of the Minister's Scholarship for Outstanding Young Scientists. She authored and co-authored over 100 papers. She is the holder of Springer Nature 2020 Highlights in "Water" category for publication on CE in water and wastewater sector. Member of the Academy ofYoung Scientists of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She is also Deputy Director of the Krakow School of Interdisciplinary PhD Studies.

Majeti Narasimha Vara Prasad is Emeritus Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, India. He has published over 219 papers and edited 34 books. He received doctorate in Botany from Lucknow University, India in 1979. Based on an independent study by Stanford University scientists in 2020, he figured in the top 2% of scientists from India, ranked number 1 in Environmental Sciences (116 in the world). Prasad had several visiting assignments viz.,University Quebec INRS-Eau, Canada, 1994; Dept of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, 1996; University of Coimbra, Portugal, 1999; Stockholm University, Institute of Botany, Sweden, 2000; University of Oulu, Oulu Finland, 2002; University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 2005; Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Dept. of Botany, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2006; Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia, 2007 to 2015; Ghent University Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Belgium, 2011; Mahasarakham University, Thailand, 2013-14; University of Santa Cruz, Ilheus-Bahia, Brazil, 2015; Govt. of India deputation to Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand for one semester 2017.

Alexandros Stefanakis is Assistant Professor at Technical University of Crete (Greece). He received PhD in Environmental Engineering at the Democritus University of Thrace. He is expert in ecological treatment of wastewater and sludge using natural systems. He has published over 15 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, international and national conference proceedings etc. His work includes numerous experiments with Constructed Wetland systems of different types and applications. He has participated in many national and European research projects. He has supervised and trained various undergraduate students. He has been rewarded twice during his career for his research work. Dr Stefanakis is also a practicing environmental engineer in Greece, dealing with the design of Constructed Wetlands facilities.